Christmas Magic in Heatherdale

by Abigail Gordon

  Maybe it was Ryan’s way of letting her see that his efforts on her behalf since arriving in Heatherdale were now at an end, and if that was the case it would have no effect on the deep gratitude she felt for the kindness he had shown her.

  ‘I wonder what’s upset the boss?’ Julian mused when Ryan had gone. ‘He was rather abrupt. Ryan needs some light relief in his life. He’s all work and no play.’

  Melissa didn’t comment. There was no way she would discuss Ryan with Julian, who, from the sound of it, hadn’t a care in the world.

  Back in his office Ryan reminded himself that from now on he would be able to relax at the thought of Melissa in the house next door with her few belongings. If she could turn up looking like she had the last two days he need not concern himself about her any more, and that being so he would find it easier to have a good working relationship with her instead of behaving like he just had.

  Ryan’s crustiness forgotten, Melissa enjoyed every moment of her first morning on the wards with Julian. She would have much preferred it to be with ‘the boss’, as his laid-back assistant called him, but it was sufficient that she was working in a hospital once more. She read the records of every young patient’s treatment and progress thoroughly when they stopped by their beds and asked Julian questions if she wasn’t clear about anything.

  That afternoon Ryan requested her presence for the brief chat that he’d mentioned earlier in the day, and she went to his office expecting a repeat of the brisk instructions of the morning. She was surprised to see him smiling. She was unaware that he had decided that now there was no longer any need of his help as far as she was concerned, he could relax and return to what life had been like before she’d appeared in it.

  ‘I just wanted to ask how your first day is going,’ he said. ‘I know how much you wanted to be back in paediatrics.’

  ‘Fantastic,’ she told him, ‘The chance to work here is the best thing that has happened to me in years and it is all due to you.’ She didn’t want to give him the wrong impression.

  ‘I’ll be fine from now on, Ryan, with the house that I’m going to make as delightful as yours one day, and working here with Julian and yourself, I’m back to the self-reliant person I used to be.’

  Still on a high on her way home, she stopped to collect colour charts for paints and some wallpaper samples and once she’d eaten she sat considering them thoughtfully. Renovating the house that was now her home would have to be carefully budgeted, but it also had to be right for the property.

  She’d seen the interior design of the house next door and had been aware of how right it was for that kind of house, and though having no wish to copy it, she felt that she needed to keep to a similar kind of décor.

  The first room to be transformed was going to be the sitting room so she decided on a heavily embossed wallpaper of red and gold to match the big ornate fireplace that, along with large leaded windows, dominated the room. She sat back in the chair and imagined what it would look like and excitement spiralled at the thought.

  * * *

  Her second day at the hospital felt less strange now she’d adjusted to the fact that Ryan was going to be around most of the time while she was working as well as living next door, but as it was she saw little of him.

  His car was there so he was around somewhere, but apart from a glimpse of him at the end of the corridor, talking sombrely to the parents of a patient, he never appeared, and when she queried his absence Julian explained that he had meetings scheduled all day with the hospital hierarchy. He added that she couldn’t have joined them at a better time.

  On her way home that evening she ventured into the main shopping area of Heatherdale and bought a long ladder that would reach way up towards the ceiling, a large can of white emulsion paint, and the paper that she had chosen for the walls, along with the paste that would be needed to fix it.

  An obliging shopkeeper offered to drop off her purchases on his way home after closing the place and he delivered them shortly after she arrived at the house.

  She’d never done any decorating before, but of late that had applied to a lot of things that she’d had to face up to, and as soon as she’d had her usual scrappy meal Melissa put on the old clothes she’d worn on the day of moving in and began to climb the ladder with the can of emulsion paint and the roller she was going to use while she painted the ceiling.

  * * *

  Ryan had arrived home shortly after Melissa and as he’d pulled up in front of their two houses had observed the delivery of the decorating materials and the stepladder, and been amazed at the size of it. He’d sighed. What was she up to now? Whatever it might be, he wasn’t going to get involved, at least not until he’d eaten the meal that Mollie had prepared for him and the children.

  * * *

  Melissa was getting the hang of it. The roller went back and forth across the age-old ceiling with her standing firmly on her lofty perch. As long as she didn’t look down, she would be fine.

  At that moment the doorbell rang and as the heavy oak door was on the latch it swung open. As she turned quickly to see who was there, the stepladder swung backwards and sent her flying through the air with a terrified scream.

  Ryan caught her just before she hit the floor, absorbing the impact of her fall.

  ‘I am so sorry to be such a nuisance.’ She gasped.

  He was still holding her close and made no reply, just kept looking down at her. It was the first time he’d held a woman like this since he’d lost Beth and it was gut-wrenching. He’d always known it would be and had made sure that it never happened for his sanity’s sake, but with Melissa it was as if he just couldn’t avoid her—she was everywhere he turned and he didn’t want it to be like that.

  Putting her carefully back onto her feet, he said abruptly, ‘Whatever possessed you to try something as dangerous as painting this high ceiling? You should have hired a decorator.’

  ‘It would be too expensive,’ she replied, wishing those moments in his arms had affected him as much as they’d affected her. She’d felt safe and protected as he’d held her close and it seemed like a lifetime since she’d last had those sorts of feelings.

  But she’d sensed tension in him as he’d held her in his arms, a reluctance to have her in such close contact, and her morale had been low enough of late without another putdown, in more ways than one.

  ‘That’s because you’re new to the area. I know someone who would do this place up for you at a very reasonable rate and make an excellent job of it. Why don’t you let me give him a buzz and ask him to come round to give you a quote? You wouldn’t be under any obligation.’

  ‘Er, yes, all right,’ she agreed reluctantly, ‘and thank you on both counts, for catching me and breaking my fall, and for offering to put me in touch with someone I can trust to do some decorating. I’ve had cause to discover recently that people I thought I could trust were not like that at all, far from it. Still, that’s in the past. For now I suppose I’d better start cleaning up.’

  ‘I guess so,’ he agreed, ‘and I’d better get back to my place. Mollie will be getting ready to go home and my children will be waiting to play their favourite game, “Hospitals”. They’ve both got a nurse’s uniform.’

  He was smiling at the thought and went on to amaze himself by saying, ‘Their mother was a midwife. She went out on a late-night call in the middle of a raging storm to supervise an imminent birth, and a tree that was rotten at the roots fell across the car. She didn’t survive the injuries it caused.’

  ‘Oh! How awful!’ she breathed. ‘You must miss her very much.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said flatly. ‘I do. More than words can say. The newborn was a girl and they called her Beth after the midwife who had been true to her calling in spite of a horrendous storm.’

  On that bombshell, Ryan wished Melissa a brief goodnight, and unable to believe that he had actually talked about the worst time of his life to a stranger of all people, he went back to where his motherless chi
ldren were waiting for him.

  When he’d gone Melissa began to clean up the mess but her mind wasn’t on it. She had her answer now to the questions about the loss of his wife.

  But surely Ryan wasn’t intending to spend the rest of his life alone and loveless? Yet wasn’t she intending to do something similar? To have been cast aside because her cash value had dropped suddenly had made her realise what a farce her engagement had been, had made her see how gullible and trusting she’d been.

  She shuddered every time she thought that someone as shallow as David Lowson could have been the father of any children she might have had. What a contrast between him and the man next door who had put himself out of circulation for the sake of his children, and in memory of the woman he had loved.

  She really would have to stop being such an intrusion in his life. It wasn’t intentional, no one needed to be solitary more than she did, having lost her faith in love and friendship. If Ryan was regretting having got involved with her again about the decorating and on second thoughts decided to let it lapse, she would understand.

  When the bell rang a second time an hour later Melissa was expecting it to be Ryan, fobbing her off with an excuse about being unable to find her a decorator.

  It was not so. A man in his sixties stood on the doorstep, and as she eyed him questioningly he said, ‘Ryan has just phoned to say that you have some decorating that you want doing.’

  ‘Er, yes, I have,’ she told him. ‘Do come in. I’ve just moved in and the whole place has been neglected. I tried to paint the ceiling and fell off the ladder.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ he commented. ‘These are very high ceilings.

  ‘Tell me what you want done and I’ll call back tomorrow with an estimate. If you agree to it I’ll start right away. I wonder if you realise how lucky you are to be the owner of a town house in a place like Heatherdale?’

  ‘I’m afraid I haven’t seen it in that light so far,’ she told him wryly.

  ‘You will’ was the reply. ‘We have a well that supplies our very own spa water all the time and is available to all comers, and the most beautiful gardens and historical buildings.’

  He held out a capable-looking hand for her to shake and said, ‘The name is Smethurst. I’ll be round tomorrow with a price if you’ll tell me what you want doing. Is it just this sitting room, or the whole place?’

  ‘Just this room to begin with,’ she told him, ‘but I’m sure that by the time you’ve done it I will be wanting you to do more.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ he agreed. ‘See you tomorrow, then,’ and went striding off into the dark winter night.

  When he’d gone she felt ashamed for presuming that Ryan would have wanted to back out of his offer to find her a decorator, and at the risk of making a further nuisance of herself she went next door to thank him for his prompt attention to her needs.

  * * *

  The children were asleep and Ryan had just settled down to what was going to be his first free time of the day when the doorbell rang. He sighed and, getting to his feet, turned the television down low and went to answer it.

  When he saw Melissa standing there his first thought was that it was getting to be too much of a habit, them toing and froing between each other’s houses. He’d done what he’d said he would do and phoned Jack Smethurst. What more did she want from him?

  ‘Hello again,’ he said observing her unsmilingly. ‘What can I do for you this time? I hope you haven’t been up the ladder again. I did tell you I would phone the decorator.’

  ‘Yes, I know you did,’ she replied with a sinking feeling that she should have waited until morning to express her thanks. ‘That’s why I’m here. He has been and—’

  ‘What? Already!’ he exclaimed. Regretting his churlishness, he added, ‘Do come in out of the cold.’

  She shook her head. The night was cold, but his greeting had been colder. ‘No, thank you. I don’t want to disturb you any further. Mr Smethurst is letting me have an estimate tomorrow and I just wanted to thank you for putting me in touch with him.’

  As she turned to go she gave a gasp of pain and he stepped towards her. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s nothing,’ she told him hurriedly. ‘Just a pulled neck muscle from when I fell off the ladder. I’ll take a painkiller when I get in. Goodnight, Ryan.’ And before he could reply she was gone, hurrying towards her own front door in the dark night and wishing that she’d stayed put instead of making a nuisance of herself again.

  When Melissa had gone, Ryan sat deep in thought with the memory of the mixture of emotions that had gripped him when he’d held her in his arms. There had been shock at the suddenness of it, relief that he’d been able to break her fall, and uppermost there had been a combined feeling of loss and longing that had broken down the barriers of the celibate life that he had chosen for himself.

  Once back in his own house he had calmed down, telling himself that the episode had just been a one off, it could have happened with anyone, and would not be referred to tomorrow as far as he was concerned.

  But when he’d answered the ring on the doorbell it had seemed that the day was not yet over where he and Melissa Redmond were concerned and he’d been offhand and unwelcoming, afraid to become too closely involved in her life.

  * * *

  The next morning Ryan waited beside his car until Melissa appeared. He asked if she was experiencing any after-effects of the fall, knowing that it must have jarred every bone in her body.

  Dredging up a smile, she told him, ‘Just one or two minor aches and pains, that’s all.’

  She was experiencing after-effects but they were mental rather than physical and had kept her awake most of the night, so she was not in the mood to start mellowing at the sight of him. She’d be polite, yes, he was her boss who had saved her from what could have been serious injuries, but afterwards he had let her see that enough was enough.

  Ryan changed the subject. ‘I’ve got some catching up to do today. Meetings are a bind when there is work to be done and yesterday’s seemed to drag on for ever. Julian reports that you are a natural on the job, manna from heaven, so that’s good.’

  He didn’t say any more, just jumped into his car and drove off, with her following once again. She didn’t know what to make of Ryan’s mood swings but, then, she was unaware that he had also slept fitfully with the memory of her in his arms sweet torment.

  As the long hours of the night had dragged by Melissa had told herself that his manner when she’d gone to thank him for sorting out a decorator would have told even the most unobservant of people that he felt he was seeing too much of her, that she was forever at his elbow.

  But the realisation had been there that as far as she was concerned it was a case of her not seeing enough of him. That was the real reason for her seeking him out again, and having those sorts of feelings for him was the last thing she wanted to happen. Since her father’s death her hurts had been many and she had no wish to add to them. Being rejected by one man was enough to be going on with.

  * * *

  When Melissa arrived home that evening the estimate from the decorator was on the doormat and she could have wept with relief at the amount he was asking for decorating the sitting room. She phoned him immediately to tell him to go ahead as soon as possible and did a little dance around the room in question when she’d made the call.

  ‘I’ll be round in the morning,’ Jack Smethurst had said. ‘Mollie next door will let me in if you give her a key.’ And that was that. Ryan had turned one of her most urgent needs into something simple and it would be difficult not to do a repeat of last night’s display of gratitude.

  But she had got the message loud and clear from his manner on that occasion, that just because he’d done her a good turn he didn’t want her to disturb him further.

  * * *

  Mollie had gone. Ryan and the children had finished their evening meal and after stacking the dishwasher he did what he’d been wanting to do ever sin
ce arriving home. He rang Jack Smethurst to enquire if Melissa had accepted his estimate.

  ‘She has indeed’ was the reply. ‘I’ll be starting in the morning. I’ve asked the young lady to leave a key with Mollie. Hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘No, not at all,’ Ryan told him. When Melissa dropped the key in later Ryan was determined that he wouldn’t be so surly when he opened the door to her this time.

  But it was eleven o’clock and she still hadn’t been with the key. He’d been listening for her to ring the doorbell all evening and when he went into the hall to see if her lights were still on he saw the key on the mat with a note beside it to say that she hoped he wouldn’t mind passing the key on to Mollie as Mr Smethurst had assured her that it would be all right.

  He groaned. The night before he’d made sure that Melissa had got the message that he wasn’t to be contacted out of working hours, and she hadn’t forgotten.

  Of course Mollie would give the decorator the key when he came. Jack Smethurst and Mollie were dating. If they decided to tie the knot at some future date he might have to find himself another housekeeper, but he had learned to live one day at a time since he’d lost Beth. His children and the job were his lifelines, as he was theirs, and any further than that he wasn’t going to contemplate.

  As he went slowly up to bed the thought came that Christmas would soon begin to spread its mantle over the ancient market town that was so dear to his heart. He wondered what his new neighbour would have planned for that. She might surprise him and have a house full of relatives turn up.

  It would be his third one without Beth and an ordeal to be got through, just as the two previous ones had been, but he would cope for Rhianna and Martha’s sakes.

  The first sign of the coming festivities would be in a couple of weeks’ time when the town’s brass band would play a selection of carols outside the old pump room.

  There would be mulled wine and mince pies on offer with presents for the children from a bran tub, and the residents of Heatherdale and folk from far and wide would be there, keeping up the traditions of a bygone age.